Household Bills

British Gas to create 2,600 green jobs to roll out smart meters

British Gas has unveiled plans to create 2,600 skilled new jobs by 2012. The new recruits will lead the roll-out of smart meter technology across Britain - the biggest revolution in home energy use for decades.

Energy suppliers urged to improve complaint handling

Energy regulator Ofgem has urged suppliers to up their game in complaint handling as consumer research found less than one in four customers were satisfied with the way gripes were dealt with.

Company claims endanger market for green products

People in Britain cannot tell which products are better for the environment amid the array of companies' green advertising claims. Many think companies pretend to be green as an excuse to hike their prices, a major new study by Consumer Focus reveals today.

Utility bills leave consumers confused and bemused

Consumers are being left confused, badly informed and potentially vulnerable to debt because of the poor quality of some major household bills, according to uSwitch.com, the independent price comparison and switching service.

Truphone adds new Nokia devices to portfolio

Truphone has added 11 additional Nokia handsets to the list of devices compatible with Truphone and whose owners can now ring up big savings by taking advantage of Truphone's broad range of calling plans and services.

Mobile uploads to YouTube increase exponentially

In the last six months, uploads from mobile phones to YouTube have jumped 1,700%; just since last Friday, when the iPhone 3GS came out, uploads have increased by 400%.

Michael Jackson's death sparks off spam

IT security and control firm Sophos is warning users to be wary of spam messages using the untimely death of music legend Michael Jackson to harvest unsuspecting computer users' email addresses for future spam campaigns.

Warm Zone, BGC, Baxi, Veolia to deliver affordable warmth

Warm Zone, BGC, Baxi Group and Veolia Water Outsourcing have collaborated to help local authorities and registered social landlords (RSLs) to address the issues of fuel poverty in off-mains gas areas.

Multifit GasSaver from Baxi

The Multifit GasSaver is an innovative low cost product that sits neatly between boiler and flue to further improve the energy efficiency of domestic boilers. It recycles flue gas heat which would normally be expelled into the atmosphere and wasted.

Investors flock to support village wind turbine

Village community contributes £86250 to purchase wind turbine. This green investment bucks the crunch. Investors say “Why rely on Russian gas imports when we can generate are own renewable energy, make a real return on our investment and combat climate change”

Most UK broadband users dissatisfied with speeds

The results from 774 respondents to ISPreview.co.uk's latest survey reveals that 58.6% of UK consumers are still not satisfied with the broadband speed they receive from their current ISP and 55.2% would be willing to pay extra for “significantly faster” performance.

Energy bill overcharging

Commenting on Consumer Focus research into energy bill ‘overcharging', Scott Byrom, utilities manager at moneysupermarket.com, said: "Unfortunately the majority of UK bill payers are still willing to remain on the same tariff and provider and do nothing proactive to change to a better deal, this means we have an uncompetitive energy market which is only a good thing for the suppliers.